Monica McCarrick, Mother Who Murdered Twin Daughters With Samurai Sword, Gets Life In Prison

A 29-year-old mother convicted of murdering her young twin daughters with a samurai sword was sentenced to two life terms in prison on Wednesday. According to The Reporter, a tearful Monica McCarrick apologized on the stand expressing her "deepest sorrow" for the 2010 incident. McCarrick reportedly killed her three-year-old twins, Tori and Lily Ball, with a samurai sword on October 12, 2010, while the two were strapped into their high chairs. McCarrick then allegedly attempted suicide and set her apartment on fire.

McCarrick's attorney told the courtroom that her client was suffering from paranoid delusions and believed her daughters were going to be enslaved and raped. McCarrick pleaded insanity, and her mother detailed her daughter's troubled childhood and history of mental illness during her testimony. However, the jury denied the insanity plea after McCarrick's meth use was revealed. The jury convicted McCarrick of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of assault on a child causing death. "I feel really bad," McCarrick reportedly told the courtroom and the father of her children on Wednesday. "I pray for all of you every day and I wish there was something I could do to ease the pain for both of our families. I love Tori and Lily more than anything in the world." The father of the children also took the stand, according to The Reporter:

The father of the twin girls, Michael Ball, also made an emotional statement before Judge Peter B Foor, but instead of asking for leniency, he went on to describe an "unconscionable" crime committed by the "defendant," never referring to McCarrick by her name. "I will miss all of the joys of my father-daughter relationship," Ball said.